CESALPINO, Andrea.

Peripateticarum Quaestionum Libri Quinque.

Venice: Giunta, 1571.

First edition, and a fine copy in a contemporary binding, of this very rare work which coined the phrase “circulation of the blood” (circulatio sanguinis, f. 111v) and provided the theoretical basis for Harvey’s experimental and quantitative treatment in De motu cordis (1628). “Cesalpino preceded Harvey in the discovery of the concept of the circulation, and Harvey...

HUBBLE, Edwin.

A Relation between Distance and Radial Velocity among Extra-Galactic Nebulae.

[Washington, D.C.]: Carnegie Institution, 1929.

First edition, extraordinarily rare inscribed offprint, of Hubble’s landmark paper, which “made as great a change in man’s conception of the universe as the Copernican revolution 400 years before” (DSB). Even ‘ordinary’ copies of this offprint are very rare, but we have never seen nor heard of another inscribed copy. Indeed, Hubble autograph material of.....

DRYANDER [EICHMANN], Johannes; MONDINO DEI LUZZI.

A very attractive sammelband, comprising two rare illustrated works of pre-Vesalian anatomy, in their original untouched vellum binding: the enlarged second edition of Dryander’s Anatomia capitis humani (1536), the first significant analysis of the anatomy of the head, united with his edition of the Anathomia of Mundinus, known as the “restorer of...

[MALTHUS, Thomas Robert].

An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society...

London: J. Johnson, 1798.

First edition, rare, of this foundation work of modern economics, and the seed for Darwin’s theory of natural selection. “Malthus’ Essay was a crucial contribution to Darwin’s thinking about natural selection when he returned in 1836 from the Beagle voyage. In July 1837 Darwin began his “Note book on Transmutation of Species,” in which he wrote...

RAMELLI, Agostino.

Le diverse et artificiose machine.

Paris: for the author, 1588. First edition.

Exceptionally fine copy, with distinguished provenance, of one of the most important books on the science and technology of machines in the renaissance, and one of the most famous illustrated books of the sixteenth century – a tour de force of book design. This is a splendid copy in contemporary French gilt vellum...

BROGLIE, Louis Victor Pierre Raymond De.

Recherches sur la théorie des quanta.

Paris: Masson et Cie. 1924.

First edition, rare, of de Broglie’s revolutionary doctoral thesis on the quantum theory, which, Einstein said, “lifted a corner of the great veil” (Isaacson, Einstein: His Life and Universe, p. 327). In this work he developed the startling and revolutionary idea that material particles such as electrons have a wave as well as a corpuscular...

WHITEHEAD, Alfred North & RUSSELL, Bertrand.

Principia mathematica.

Cambridge: at the University Press, 1910-12-13.

First edition of all three volumes of this monumental work. Complete sets of the first edition which, like ours, are not ex-library, are very rare on the market – only two such copies have sold at auction in the past 25 years. Probably named after Isaac Newton’s great work, “Principia Mathematica was Whitehead and...

NUÑEZ, Salaciense Pedro.

Libro de algebra en arithmetica y geometria.

Antwerp: heirs of Arnold Birckman, 1567. First edition.

Exceptionally fine copy, bound in citron morocco for Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553-1617), of this rare and celebrated treatise on algebra. “Considered the greatest of Portuguese mathematicians, Nuñez reveals in his discoveries, theories, and publications that he was a first-rate geographer, physicist, cosmologist, geometer and algebraist” (DSB). Only three other copies have appeared...